This weekend I’m heading oop north to run a couple of games at Furnace. It will be my first time at this Con, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Here’s the flyers for my games. I’ll be sure to write up my experiences on the other side (or even live and direct if they have decent wifi at the venue)

As I’ve been prepping for the 4e games I’m running at Furnace later this year, I’ve been working on character sheets.

I wanted a simplified sheet, suitable for newbies to the system, but with enough detail for old hands. I wanted it to be small enough to not take up too much space at the table. I also wanted it to be colourful and tell the story of the scenario a little bit.

Given that my IT skills are basic at best I’ve gone with a Word document. Can’t get easier than that. I’ve done 4 sheets which I print 2 to a page thus making an A5 booklet. That means you see the pages in this order, 2,3,4,1.

I still have some tinkering to do, like adding in the flavour to the powers section, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with these.

So I’m getting down to organising my D&D games for this year’s Furnace convention. I’ve got my plot all done and I’m fleshing out a series of encounters. As suggested by Lemur in a previous comment, I want to show off some of the bells and whistles of the game. I think it’s really important to do this. A great many punters at Cons will want to try out new games, to get a flavour of what’s going on without having to commit time and money to a game that isn’t for them. Even existing fans of your system or storyline will want to play something they are less likely to get at home, otherwise why bother coming out to play at all?

With that in mind, I think it’s often worth jotting down some USPs (unique selling points) that you want to get across in your slot. It can be rules, subsytems, themes, locations, individuals, whatever. For my 4e game I wanted to showcase some new stuff, as well as go with things I found personally interesting. Here’s my first thoughts;

Feywild and Shadowfell

Heroic tier

Non standard party

Built in motives and relationships

Military theme, the dirty (half)dozen

Correct minis and tiles

Two games with a similar backstory

Stripped down character sheets

Full skill challenges

Lots of art reference

Some non-battlemat combats

Hostage situation

Betrayal

I had those running around in my head when I first started thinking about my scenario. I’m glad I noted them down, as it’s now a month later and I want to see if I’ve stuck to my ideas and themes. That doesn’t mean they are written in stone, far from it, but it’s a good way of keeping your focus. Like anyone, I’m prone to ideas drift at the best of times, so this helps me stay on track. I’m nailing down the details right now and i’m pretty p,leased with what I’ve got. then I’m going to put it all to one side for a bit to let it simmer. Hopefully I’ll still be as happy with it when I return.